The standard for all RPGs. This game set the bar by which I compare all other RPGS to, and the bar is VERY high.
You begin your quest with nothing more than a Vault 13 jump suit and canteen. But, you soon find out the world is a very harsh place. You are little more than a potential grease stain to some, target practice for others, and food to a variety of critters and other nasties.
The character creation and advancement system is very unique. It is completely open ended. You do not pick a class or a role. Instead, you are presented with every possible skill in the game right from the start. It is up to you whether you want to create a stealthy melee fighter, a thieving sniper, a heavy gunner, a scientist, a medic, or a combination of ANY of those. Each level, you gain a certain number of skill points to spend depending on your characters stats. You can also choose three "tag" skills that are twice as easy to advance as anything else. As you raise your skill in a particular area, you are able to do things with greater and greater chances of success. For example, the higher your small guns skill, the more likely you are to hit when shooting. As your skill gets higher, it gets easier to make that shot hit even at great distances or in unfavorable conditions such as darkness. You can also take aim and it vital spots with greater ease. Also, a higher skill in first aid for example both increases the likelihood to heal wounds and the amount of damage you heal. At character creation you can also choose up to physical traits. These traits tend to help you specialize in certain and can give you advantages in specific situations. For example, you can pick a trait that favors one-handed guns making you hit more with them, but making it harder to hit with big, two-handed guns.
As you level you gain access to perks based on the skills you have chosen and your level. For example, if you have begun increasing your lockpicking skill, you can pick a perk that gives you a bonus to that skill. You can get all kinds of perks mostly from leveling up, but also some from quests or encounters with NPCs.
As you explore the world you will encounter a wide variety of characters. Some of the more notables characters will have a special dialog screen that shows the face of the character as they speak. These characters have excellent voice acting to give them more life and personality. Some people you meet will join your party and help you fight. And trust me, you'll need the help. On your quest to find a new water chip for your vault you will encounter all sorts of things looking to loot and/or eat your dead body. Raiders, giant scorpions, muted humans, giant rats and more want nothing more than to see you bleed. Fortunately you quickly adapt to your environment and pick up the ability to fight.
The combat system in Fallout is great. It is turn-based (as all RPGs should be...) and is based on a action point system. That is, you have a certain number of points, up to ten, that you can use each turn. Shooting a gun may cost you four points, taking an aimed shot may take you five. Punching usually takes three while a round house takes four. Getting into you backpack costs two points, equipping a new weapon takes two points and so forth. The number of action points you have is based on your Agility. There are a wide variety of weapons you can acquire from a simple spear or rocks all the way to a plasma rifle or Laser Gatlin gun. And come on, who doesn't want to fire a LASER GATLIN GUN!!! As you level up, you can specialize in any weapon set you choose. Samll guns include rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Large guns include rocket launchers, flame throwers and portable gatlin guns. Energy weapons include plasma pistols, plasma rifles, laser gatlin guns, and more. There are also a large variety of grenades including frag and EMP pulse grenades for those marauding robots.
You have indirect control of your party members in that you can ask them to stay put, fire only if they have a good shot, use burst fire or single shots, when to use healing and more. You can give them weapons and ask them to equip them, but that's about it.
Aside from all the game mechanics, the story and setting is really what make this game just incredible. There are multiple story arcs happening all around you. Through your actions, you can change their course for good or bad or not ever encounter some of the stories. At the end of the game you get a summary of all your deeds and how they affected your world. ow cool is that. Additionally, as you travel the world you can have a HUGE variety of random encounters. I'm not talking about running into a fight, but instead you may run across a crash landed alien space ship or a pit fight ring where you can fight for cash or other things. These encounters are random though some do occur in about the same place in the game world. Many of these encounters are direct references to pop-culture. They are so fun!! For example, one encounter has you meeting up with an Away Team from a certain Federation Starship!! In addition to being fun, these encounters can also grant you access to some very powerful weapons and armor.
The bottom line is that this game rocks. The story is amazing, the game mechanics are extremely fun, the character development is open-ended and exciting, and the quests are very fun. In fact in writing this review, I'm gonna break out the game and play through again.
If you haven't played this game, please go out and experience one of the brightest moments in PC gaming.